Katie Fitzgerald

Katie Fitzgerald is the program director for the Aspen Challenge, a program of the Aspen Institute that provides a platform for young people to design solutions to some of today’s toughest societal issues.

Katie Fitzgerald is the program director for the Aspen Challenge, a program of the Aspen Institute that provides a platform for young people to design solutions to some of today’s toughest societal issues.

This program is conducted in inner city schools in major cities across the country and provides structure, training and inspiration to high school students to create an implementable solution to an issue evidenced in their community. They are challenged to create solutions that result better future for themselves and their neighborhoods. Katie has been one of the Aspen Challenge team members of the since the program’s inception in 2013.

Prior to launching the Aspen Challenge program, Katie was a project manager for the Seminars Department, the Aspen Ideas Festival Scholars Program and Scholarship Manager for the Aspen Institute. In these assignments she was involved in managing Aspen Seminars and part of the Aspen Global Leadership programs in Aspen. As scholarship manager, Katie worked with the Executive team to allocate and manage scholarship funds (over $600K per year), as well as managing the Aspen Ideas Festival Scholars Program by recruiting and selecting scholars (over 300) from across the world of business and coordinating their participation in the Ideas Festival.

Katie has lived in the Roaring Fork Valley for 10 years, after moving from Vail, Colorado specifically to work for the Aspen Institute. In Vail, she worked Corporate Group Sales and Services for Vail Resorts. Katie grew up in Glenview, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. She graduated from Northern Michigan University and among her many skills speaks conversational Spanish. After graduation she worked at a major corporation in Chicago in Human Resources before moving to the mountains. Katie and her husband, David, live in Basalt and have two lovely daughters, Maggie, 8 years old and Lily, 6 years old.

Katie is also a proud board member of Girls on the Run and the Food Pantry Lift Up.